Interview: CIOs and Shifting Roles within IT

We asked Destiny Bertucci, Head Geek at SolarWinds, her opinion on how roles and responsibilities within the IT team and wider business will change in 2017.

15th December 2016

We asked Destiny Bertucci, Head Geek at SolarWinds, her opinion on how roles and responsibilities within the IT team and wider business will change in 2017. As IT professionals are being constantly subjected to change as we move into the new year, Destiny explains how the ability to quickly learn new IT concepts and skills, and adopt a ‘shared responsibility’ culture will be more important than being an expert in any one technology.

Traditional, siloed IT roles—network administrators, storage administrators, systems administrators, database administrators, and more—are changing. These IT pros are continuing to take on new responsibilities, such as working with cloud service providers in hybrid environments, implementing new technologies, like containers and micro services, and acting as an IT liaison to business leaders. Therefore, 2017 is signalling the return of the age of education and certification.

Beyond this, as the IT team reassesses their role and responsibility within the business and the DevOps culture develops, new roles are likely to emerge. For example, security threats such as ransomware and malware will become a high priority for the IT team, which will in turn put a priority on risk-assessment. Putting a price on their data will help businesses justify investing in, or not investing in the appropriate security staff and support in the new year.

(0:05) – How do you see the role and responsibilities of the CIO shifting in the next year?)